Greetings from Andalusia, on the southern coast of Spain. We have beautiful sunshine this weekend, again. The bright blue sky, the sea rippling as far as the eye can see, small colorful boats propelled by oars, enjoyed by tourists visiting La Herradura, the small beach town where I live. Being able to observe this beautiful landscape every day led me to choose the topic I will write about today: beauty.

Ever since I was a child, I loved reading and was interested in learning about other cultures through books, magazines, and newspapers. My dad subscribed to National Geographic magazine, and every month he would receive a copy that the whole family would read. As a result, I became aware at a very early age that there were different races and cultures, and I learned to understand and respect them. It never occurred to me to think that one race or culture was better or worse than another. But I also realized that some of my classmates at school did look down on other people because of their race, culture, or social class.

Every culture has its own way of seeing and understanding the world around it and its place in the world. The concept of beauty or ugliness varies from one culture to another. We usually see this in artistic expressions, but also, for example, in everyday utensils, clothing, and accessories such as shoes and jewelry. What one culture considers beautiful, another culture may consider ugly. Tastes can also vary from one era to another. I remember the colorful clothes, hairstyles, and accessories that young people wore in the 1980s, which today may seem somewhat exaggerated. On the other hand, in the same era and place, different people may disagree about whether something is beautiful or not. Who is right?

Beauty, like truth, is subjective. Our culture gives us certain parameters of what is beautiful and what is not, but each person also has their own personal tastes. For example, I like earth tones, brown, ochre, some shades of orange; I also like harmony, disorder, irregular things, which I generally dislike. That's why I like the calm sea; the sea's continuous ebb and flow makes me feel peaceful. For me, the sea is beautiful. In reality, the sea, or any other landscape, is neither beautiful nor ugly; it is the gaze of the beholder that gives it beauty.

Beauty, for me, as Aristotle puts it in his “Rhetoric,” is “a good that pleases in itself” and pleases us because of its qualities of order, symmetry, and harmony. That is why we enjoy many landscapes and beings that are good for the soul because of their beauty. That is why we can stay and contemplate them for a long time, and today we photograph them and share them on social media. It's the same when we fall in love. Even if the person isn't really attractive, seeing them and being with them makes us feel good. So, we can say that what is pleasing to the eye and makes us feel good when we look at it is beautiful, at least to us. I would like to emphasize once again the subjectivity of beauty.

Just as tastes and concepts of beauty vary from one culture to another or from one place to another. What we found beautiful at one point in time may cease to seem beautiful to us over time, and we fall out of love with it. We think, “What did I see in that man (or woman)?” or “I don't like this place anymore; how it has deteriorated.” This has probably happened to all of us at some point. Time is cruel to some people and places, making them ugly. We no longer enjoy looking at them. On the other hand, a person who makes us happy... never loses their charm.

For me, ugliness is disharmony. A person who doesn't know how to behave, who treats others badly, who shouts, who disrespects other people, who makes them feel unhappy, is very ugly. It doesn't matter how beautiful they are. They are ugly on the inside, and their physical beauty doesn't interest me. I feel the same way about places; I find messy, dirty places ugly. Right now, the table where I'm writing is ugly because it's messy. But as soon as I finish writing this text, I'm going to tidy it up. A street near my house is full of trash, and I don't like that either. Summer has scorched the flowers that beautified it, and they cut the dry bushes, but they left trash there. Ugh. How ugly.

Bartholo is the dog belonging to Ruxandra, my partner's daughter. He is not a physically attractive dog; on the contrary, he is one of the ugliest dogs I have ever seen. But he makes himself loved, like many unattractive people. He is a calm, affectionate dog, and that makes him cute to me.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed a happy weekend. Greetings from Andalusia, Spain.